Comparing and Contrasting Preterist and Futurist Interpretations of Revelation

Preterists and idealists have much in common in that they seem to reject the prophetic element the book of Revelation. However, in the preterist approach, Revelation was perceived to be describing the events surrounding the destruction of the Roman Empire (Gundry 2012). For example, Mark Hitchcock explains in his article “A Critique of The Preterist View”, that some scholars believe that the seven heads and seven kings, mentioned in 2 Revelations 17:9, are symbolic of a complete set of Roman rulers. The number seven, referenced in the scripture, is viewed as being an apocalyptic symbol for completeness. Though all four approaches agree, to some extent, that the book of Revelation contains symbolic

The Book of Revelation and its fantastic images and gory details has captivated people for centuries. Some have deemed the work of John of Patmos as prophecy, arguing that after its completion it fulfilled historical events or predicted events yet to come. Others view his work as simply another religious prophet’s patriarchal view of “right” behavior for women as it draws a defining line casting women into one of two groups: pure or sexually immoral. And still others proclaim Revelations to be purely “anti-Roman propaganda” as John begins a two point attack against Rome and God’s faithful people who accommodate them, “accomplices in evil”. These points have their merits; however, each view runs the risk of “domesticating” Revelation to the point that it no longer holds positive religious meaning.

Comparing and contrasting different written works is a key aspect to discovering truths about the Christian Bible. When we compare and contrast canonical books, we can learn many things about the theology and context in which these books were written. Today, we will be comparing two books from the New Testament: Hebrews and Revelation. While Hebrews is often referred to as an epistle, it is actually more similar to a sermon. Revelation is a book that describes a supposed “vision” from the author John. John wrote this vision down on the instruction of a heavenly figure. While we compare these books, we will specifically focus on their relation to Judaism and their positions on Judaism. We will examine three major difference and/or similarities: Their views on the relevance of Jewish History, the superiority of Christ, and, the Second coming of the Messiah.

Reading the Book of Revelation has brought a new understanding of religion and its connection with contemporary culture and the impact the work has our society today. Through the use of detailed imagery and unique point of view writing style and other writing tools, this bible revision provides an interesting read that is very educational when recognizing the influence of its work today. The mysterious author John writes the Book of Revelation detailing the apocalyptic events of the world as a prophet and the divine process it will face, along with the warning to listen to these words as truth. John has a unique assortment of chapters that cover different symbolic events that connect with contemporary popular culture through the use of writing

Some people may believe that prophecy and apocalyptic literature is a well-known subject because there are lots of books and papers concerning it, but there is still so much that will always be misunderstood. Prophesy and apocalyptic literature may have some similarities but they are structurally different in a way that makes them distinct. This paper will address prophecy and apocalyptic writings and determine the differences between them by using Daniel and Amos as templates.

If one is able to reach this conclusion that history is repeating itself in a chronological manner based on the overwhelming similarities between ancient and modern historical occurrences, then preparing for the next occurrence could not be more crucial. The next occurrence is the foremost reason why historical prophecies in Ezekiel should be utilized as a tool to educate people on how to approach and possibly solve current problems.

Second, the books of Daniel and Revelation contain prophecies that point to the same event. Many Biblical scholars approach the interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation differently (Nelson 1982). For the book of Daniel, the majority of scholars share similar interpretation. This is because interpretations of dream or vision are included in the book. As for the book of Revelation, it contains various symbolic things and beings but there is not much interpretation for dreams or visions included in it. That is why there are several approaches to interpret Revelation in Christian community. Because of several approaches, I would like to focus only to the approach that is held by the majority of Seventh-day Adventists such as Uriah Smith and Ellen G. White who showed strong and clear connection between the books of Daniel and Revelation. Seventh-day Adventist pioneers such as Uriah Smith

This term paper will attempt to compare specific biblical passages from the book of Ezekiel to specific passages in the book of Revelation. These passages are comparable due to their similar use of language, visions, and symbolism.

On one hand, some believe that the Book of Revelation was the message from Jesus Christ’s which was sent directly to Christians of the first century to comfort them in a time of conflict and struggle. On the other hand, some comprehend the book of Revelation in another way—They argue that the Revelation was not written only for Christians in first century, and the original purpose was not to console their pain. It’s also important to explore these different approaches to interpret the Revelation. The first kind of view which I hold is called the Preterist view. And the other view which considers Revelation to be fulfilled in past history is called the Historicist view. Historicists would “see Revelation as predicting the major movements of Christian history, most of them have been fulfilled up to the time of the commentator.” According to this description, the historicist interpreters regard the purpose of the Book of Revelation as predicting a part of the future (which in this case means after the1st century). Different commentators in different time interpreted the Book of Revelation in different ways, but all of them only considered the history before the time when they studied it. But if Jesus Christ was to show the future, why did he just show a part of it rather than the whole Christian history? To answer this question, a new school called the futurist view emerged. “The futurist view

1. The central vision of Revelation is found in chapters 4-5. (a) What is the

Furthermore, Pagels’ analysis provides clear historical evidence from the past and is able to properly cover questions readers are concerned about in The Book of Revelation. However, Pagels lacks in variety, as she only uses historical examples in an unorganized matter to prove her argument.

Roadmap to the End of Days by Daniel Friedmann presents a biblical view of religious events, using history to connect the end of days. Digging within religious texts, Friedmann speaks about the days of creations, explaining, as well as referencing, historical events that happened through holy text. Throughout the 10 chapters, the author considers several events; the cosmic ideal, the Messianic era, a general timeline, the past in recent history, looking forward and the world to be (in his eyes) alongside a conclusion.

Chapter one is a survey of modern scholarly literature related to the theme of worship in the Apocalypse. It is divides into four subtopics; A) The theme of worship as a whole, B) The hymns in the Apocalypse, C) Revelation 4-5, D) Additional worship scenes.

The passage of Scripture being discussed in the following paper is Daniel 7:1-14. This chapter consists of three literary sections, first, chaos by the sea (7:1-8) followed by the heavenly courtroom (7:9-14), concluding with the visions divine victory and interpretation (7:15-28) which will not be addressed in this paper. The Christian canon locates the book of Daniel within its prophetic writings, however, the Jewish canon includes it within, “the Writings.” The book of Daniel doesn’t necessarily fit in either category, as it is widely considered within the literary category of apocalyptic literature which the subsequent sections of this paper will explore further. Daniel can be divided into three sections, based on language: a Hebrew introduction (Ch. 1); an Aramaic section (Ch. 2-7); and a Hebrew section (Ch. 8-12). Within these three language divisions exist two literary sections, first, the Tales (Ch. 1-6) followed by the Visions (Ch. 7-12). These two sections, though existing within the language divisions appear to have no corresponding connection.

This paper will analyze the "Divine Purpose" as it appears in the various "highways of prophecy" in the New Testament, and show how those "highways" may be followed to a deeper and fuller appreciation of God's message.